One piece car door seal



Feb. 12, 1957 W. J. SWAN ONE PIECE CAR DOOR SEAL Filed Oct. 8, 1954 INVENTOR lULHi am I Swan 2,781,217 ONE PIECE CAR DOOR SEAL William John Swan, Demaine, Saskatchewan, Canada Application October 8, 1954, Serial No. 461,217 1 Claim. (Cl. 292322) My invention relates to new and useful improvements in car door seals, the principal object and essence of my invention being to provide a locking seal which can be formed from one piece of material and which, furthermore, is easily locked by the operator and cannot be disengaged without destroying or damaging the seal.

Yet another object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described which can be manipulated readily by an operator wearing gloves in relatively cold weather.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described which eliminates the various springs and other parts normally going into the make-up of a conventional car door seal.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described which is simple in construction, extremely economical in manufacture, and otherwise well suited to the purpose for which it is designed.

With the foregoing objects in view, and such other objects and advantages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, my invention consists essentially in the arrangement and construction of parts all as hereinafter more particularly described, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure l is a top plan view of a blank from which my seal may be formed, part of the cavity enclosure having been formed therein.

Figure 2 is a section substantially along the lines 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a sectional view of the car seal shown in the locked position.

Figure 4 is an end view of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the cavity enclosure, together with one end of the tongue.

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the difierent figures.

The conventional car door seal consists of a plurality of parts, some of which are moving parts and which, therefore, are relatively expensive to assemble and manufacture, apart from permitting, under certain conditions, tampering with the seal which cannot readily be ascertained by visual inspection thereof.

The present device overcomes these disadvantages inasmuch as it is formed from one piece and locks positively, and cannot be displaced without seriously damaging the face of the seal.

Proceeding now to describe my invention in detail, I prefer to form my seal from a one piece blank having the plan configuration illustrated in Figure 1. In this connection, however, it will be appreciated that the cavity enclosure has been partially formed at this stage. The seal, in this condition, consists of an elongated fiat tongue 1 connecting with one end of the base wall 2 of the cavity enclosure, which is semi-cylindrical when viewed in side elevation. Side walls 3 are formed at this stage and enclose the sides of the cavity and a prong 4 extends from the opposite upper edge of the cavity enclosure base 2. This prong is substantially rectangular when rates Patent 0 viewed in plan for the majority of its length, as indicated 7 by the reference character 5, and has formed on the end 2,781,217 Patented Feb. 12, 1957 6 thereof the prong proper identified by the reference character 7. This prong consists of an arrowhead portion 8 connected to the main portion 5 by a restricted neck portion 9, so that the wings 10 of the arrowhead form projections, the purpose of which will hereinafter be described.

Extending upwardly from the sides 3 are flanges 11, the purpose of which will hereinafter be described, and situated in the distal end 12 of the tongue 1 is a substantially rectangular aperture 13, having bounding edges 14. The next stage in forming the seal is to angulate the prong portion, as illustrated in phantom in Figure 2. so that the portion 7 extends at an angle from the portion 5. This angulated portion is then rotated in the direction of arrows 15 to take up the position clearly shown in Figure 3, so that the portion 5 of the prong forms the upper closure of the cavity enclosure 2.

The flanged portions 11 of the sides 3 are then turned over, as illustrated in Figure 5, to clamp the prong portion in the position shown in Figure 3, with the portion 8 of the prong extending downwardly into the cavity and in a direction away from the tongue 1.

Finally, an elongated slit 16 is provided within the base 2 of the cavity enclosure adjacent the point of connection of the tongue thereto.

In operation, the tongue is passed through the hasp (not illustrated) of the car door, whereupon the distal end 12 is inserted through the slit 16 in the cavity enclosure, the tongue being bent in the direction of arrows 17.

The distal end 12 of the tongue is urged forwardly so that it bears against the prong 8, flexing same upwardly until the pointed end thereof strikes the aperture 13, whereupon the prong 8 enters the aperture and a slight retraction of the tongue causes the wings 10 of the pointed end to bear against the bounding edges 14 of the aperture 13 and locks therebeneath, so that it is impossible to remove the tongue from the prong without severely damaging the seal.

Since various modifications can be made in my invention as hereina-bove described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claim Without departing from such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter contained in the accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

What I claim as my invention is:

A one piece car door seal comprising in combination a cavity enclosure, a tongue extending from one end of said enclosure, a prong extending downwardly into said enclosure in a direction away from said tongue, an arrow head formed on said prong, a slit in said cavity enclosure adapted to receive the distal end of said tongue, and an aperture in the distal end of said tongue, adapted to be engaged and locked by said prong when said tongue is passed through said slit, said cavity enclosure including a substantially semi-cylindrical base wall, a pair of side walls and flanges extending from the upper ends of said side walls, one end of said tongue connecting with one end of said base wall, one end of said prong connecting to the other end of said base wall and adapted to be folded over to form the upper Wall of said enclosure, said flanges adapted to be angulated to clamp said upper wall and said prong in position, the wings of said arrow head locking behind the bounding edges of said aperture in said tongue.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 692,836 Ellis Feb. 11, 1902 834,200 Greene et al Oct. 23, 1906 1,174,306 Bratten Mar. 7, 1916 

